VH1 launched an Android version of the VH1 app on Google Play on Feb. 18, a move that makes the channel's main TV everywhere app available on both Apple and Android devices, reports Jonathan Mallow, VP of connected content at VH1 in an interview.
“We launched the iOS version of the VH1 flagship TV Everywhere app last fall and the launch of the Android app extends our reach to basically all of our viewers,” he explained.
The Android version mirrors the features of the iOS version, with a large section of full episodes of new shows as well as a large library of their back catalogue available to users who have subscriptions with pay TV providers that have cut TV Everywhere deals with the network for the streaming rights.
So far, interest in the app's content has been very strong, Mallow adds.
Completion rates, for example, are high, with 70% of users who started to watch a video ultimately finishing them. “It is a very deep engagement metric,” he says.
It also had over three million streams of its movie, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story on the app.
VH1 is also working to drive usage by making exclusive content available on the app, a strategy it plans to continue with the launch of the new Android version.
As part of that strategy, it has made full episodes available early or exclusively on the app. VH1 has also been making sneek peeks of the next show available exclusively on the app. This lets viewers of the third episode of a show on air, see previews of the fourth episode later that same evening on the app.
“We have seen a lot of usage from those exclusives,” Mallow explains.
They will also be posting a full episode from the new season of Basketball Wives before it airs exclusively on the app.
